Who’s that stiff with Vic the Brick?
Before Friday nights game with Los Altos Arroyo head coach Jim Singiser was worried about the physicality of the Conquerors.
“Have you seen those guys? I think if we can make some plays on them but if it turns into a ground game and smash mouth football we might be in trouble,” Singiser said.
And it was true the Los Altos front line was getting a lot of ink this summer. Guys like David Tolmachoff and Jake Loera were being heralded as tough customers to deal with. And they were exactly that. But Arroyo didn’t back down.
The Knights made plays, Nathan Coto to Nico Lozano and Jose Valdivia, Randy Amezcua running the ball, but they also knocked heads with Los Altos. They fell a score short but they knocked heads.
“Jim (Singiser) has some tough guys over there. Those guys matched us physically,” said Los Altos HC Dale Ziola.
Singiser was pleased with the effort as well. “I thought we gave away too many possessions but we did play with them physically,” Singiser.
All I was thinking when I was watching from the sidelines was if Arroyo can play with these guys on a physical level what happens when they play Rosemead? El Monte? Temple City? Skill guys have never really been a problem for Arroyo but if they have brute strength too?
As far as Los Altos is concerned everything will be fine. Ziola summed it up with three words. “Hacegaba is a stud.”
Singiser is always good for a line or two during a game. Here is a classic from Friday night. He was urging a player to move right but the point seemingly wasn’t getting across.
“Move right! Move right! Right!” Singiser screamed out towards the field. The player didn’t move and when he returned to the sidelines he heard it from Singiser. “What are you doing? I told you to move right! Do I have to put out some flares?”
Sorry to see Rowland running back Avery Duffus go down with a knee injury. But for Ryan Jacobson it’s nice to have a running back waiting in the wings. Jackie Zhang stepped in and ran for over 268 yards and two touchdowns in the win over Nogales. The next play after the injury time out for Duffus, Zhang went 43 yards for the first score.
Jake Payton makes more of a difference than we thought. He immediately became the feature back that Bonita needed and left a huge hole in the San Dimas running attack. Some people, including yours truly, thought the Saints wouldn’t miss a beat. But they certainly weren’t the same team – at least last Thursday night they weren’t.
You realize just how much Brandon Martinez meant to El Monte when you see what happened to the Lions in the opener. Baldwin Park 47 El Monte 18.
The Mark Keppel Aztecs!
That’s my principle.
Tim can be reached at tim@midvalleysports.com.
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